Future Wal-Mart Greeter

I have to admit, our family loves Wal-Mart! I can find everything there for cheaper than anywhere else...well, almost everything. Sometimes Carson and I will go there just to look around for something to do. We usually need something there though. Carson is to that age where he has started to learn how to mimic, so he has learned how to wave.

As we walk through Wal-Mart, he waves at everyone that we pass, missing an occasional few. It has really started bringing me out of my shell. I am a shy person enough as it is and it's always been hard for me to warm myself up to people. I have never talked to more strangers in my life. We also get many smiles, laughs and waves back.

Now if I were to wave at everyone in Wal-Mart, they'd all think I was crazy. It makes it so much sweeter for people to get a hello from a sweet baby boy like Carson.

Airplanes

Here is a little story about Carson that I hope will bring a little laughter to everyone who reads this. Carson happens to be in love with airplanes. I really need to get him some toy ones because he loves them. When we are outside they always fly over our heads and he doesn't miss one. I swear he can hear them before we do! Every time he hears one, he looks up and reaches his right arm up to the sky and goes, "whoah" in baby language.

This morning when I pulled him out of his crib to take to Grandma and Grandpa's house he was still sleeping. He lied his head back on my shoulder as we walked out of the apartment and out the door. I started climbing up the stairs and down the pathway as an airplane flew overhead. I stopped for a second to see what Carson would do. Sure enough, Carson with his eyes still shut, lifts his head off my shoulder and reaches up with his right arm towards the sky and looked up. As soon as the airplane had lost it's noise in the distance, he lied his head back onto my shoulder as we continued to the car.

Like I said before, he doesn't miss one airplane!

Happy Fourth Of July

Happy 4th!!

Our family watching the fireworks

Jackson sharing his rootbeer float with Carson. What a nice cousin!

Carson swimming for the first time...he doesn't like cold hose water.

Carson is so cute in that swimming suit

I just wanted to say Happy Fourth to everyone! We were lucky to be able to take a break from our moving for a day and spend some time with both of our families. My sister Gina had to work at 5, so we had a BBQ. Then we went up to Doug and Kirstin's to watch some fireworks and eat Rootbeer Floats. It was a very fun day!

The Name Game

I got this off of my cousin Linzie's blog. I totally loved playing it. It was a good laugh.

1 . YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet & current car) Coby Corolla

2.GANGSTA NAME: (fave ice cream flavor, favorite cookie) Pistacio Almond Chocolate Chip

3. YOUR “FLY Guy/Girl” NAME: (first initial of first name, first three letters of last name) Cpar

4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal) Pink Polar Bear

5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born) Marie West Valley

6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first) Parch

7.SUPERHERO NAME: (”The” + 2nd favorite color, favorite drink) The Red Dr. Pepper

8. NASCAR NAME: (the first names of your grandfathers) Leroy Bud

9. STRIPPER NAME: (the name of your favorite perfume/cologne/scent, favorite candy) Happy Gummy Bears

10.WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother’s & father’s middle names ) Ann Keith

11. TV WEATHER ANCHOR NAME: (Your 6th grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with the same letter) Williams Williamsburg

12. SPY NAME: (your favorite season/holiday, flower) Fall Rose

13. CARTOON NAME: (favorite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now+“ie”) Raspberry Pantsie

14. HIPPY NAME: (What you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree) Oatmeal Pine

15. YOUR ROCKSTAR TOUR NAME: (”The” + Your fave hobby/craft, fave weather element + “Tour”) The Blogging Rain Tour

16. YOUR CELEBRITY COUPLE NAME: (half of your name, half your significant other's name, mixed together in whichever order sounds best.) Chrisda

I want anyone who wants to do it, do it!

Future Makeup Artist

I didn't know that it would be this soon before Carson got into my makeup. Here are a few pictures of his beautiful work. Just to let all you ladies know that he is by appointment only and he doesn't accept personal checks. You must book your appointments 1 month in advance. :)

Sleeping

As you all know, it took Dave and I quite a while to get Carson to learn how to sleep on his own. My sister in law, Kirstin, gave me the advice to get him attached to a blanket and a stuffed animal for some security. It has helped out a lot. Here is Carson's teddy bear "Mr. Teddy". I know, that is the best name that we could come up with. His first name is Freddy, so we always say, "you ready, Freddy?" when we are on our way out the door or putting both of them to bed.

I love how Carson falls asleep! Dave and I love going into his room after he falls asleep for his naps or for bed. We always find him in the funniest positions. I am sure that all babies move around in their sleep, but it is still a lot of fun to see what he gets himself into. We have discovered that if Carson falls asleep on his side or his stomach, he doesn't wake up in the middle of the night at all. I think it gives him a sense of security.

We love our funny little boy!

Erin's Wedding

Erin and Matt

Carson enjoying the grass

Me and Janel

Me, Carson, Gina, Erin and Janel

Our happy eternal family

Carson and mom at the temple waiting for the bride and groom to make their entrance

Erin and Matt arriving at Ab's Drive-In

Carson reaching for some keys! He had a blast all day long and was such a good boy

Cindy and Carson

Beau and Gina at the reception

One of my best friends got married today in the Salt Lake Temple. It was nice to be able to go and witness the sealing. It's always nice to go because you think back to your own sealing and remember how much you love your husband or wife. It's always a nice reminder of how you're sealed to your companion and something that you might have argued about that morning doesn't matter anymore. You go away again with a renewed appreciation for each other.

The sealer that Matt and Erin had was wonderful. He focused on the covenants and he drilled Matt and Erin by asking questions and about all the covenants made in the temple. They were both so nervous and answered each question carefully in fear to say the wrong one. I am the same way. I may know the answer right away, but I hesitate to say the right one in fear of everyone staring at me. Everything went really well and the both look so happy.

Their wedding luncheon was at Ab's Drive-In. Totally different, yet totally cool! We got a medium drink with whatever we wanted. I got a hamburger (which I don't eat very often) and some fries with a Kit-Kat shake! Yum! Matt wanted it to be casual, so he got his wish. They closed the dining area down, but kept open the drive-thru. People would walk in and walk out very upset, but there were only about 3 people during those 2 hours that actually came in. What a fun time we had! Carson enjoyed it! He loved eating the bun, some fries and a little bit of everyone's shakes.

They had their reception at Millcreek Inn. It was so beautiful and quiet up there! I didn't want to go home. I love the mountains and the outdoors. They had a photo booth there and we got to take 6 pictures of the three of us. Erin and Matt got to keep 3 for their guestbook and we got to keep the other 3. Way fun!

I am so glad that Dave, Carson and I got to enjoy this special day with them. It's always nice for Dave to have an excuse to get out of work so he can spend some time with me and Carson.

Again, going to the temple and witnessing another sealing refreshes my testimony of why I want to be so obedient and why I love this gospel.

Bachelorette Party

Just to warn everyone about to read this blog, there is no parental guidance needed to read it. The title is very deceiving, but if I put LDS in the front of it, you all know it would've been safe to read in the first place. Planning an LDS bachelorette party is not very hard or doesn't take a lot of thought. You already know that the booze and the male strippers are out of the question.

One of my best friends is getting married on the 18th of this month, so all of my friends wanted to throw her a bachelorette party. I did as much planning as I could, considering dinner and a short activity afterwards was our only option.

So, I emailed Erin's mom and asked her what her favorite restaurant was and so we took her to Mimi's Cafe. What a hopping place for a wild party, I'll tell you what! Then we went back to my sister's house and made brownie sundaes and played "Pin the Bow on the Bachelor". Some of us had too much fun.

The next day, Erin went to the Salt Lake Temple to get her Endowments out. Of coarse, I invited myself because I thought it would be awesome to be there. It was also a great excuse to get Dave and me to the temple. I am so glad we went. It was nice to see familiar faces in the temple. It makes you realize that you have that special thing in common that make us all brothers and sisters. The temple really helps my testimony. I was thinking before we went how unworthy I felt, but I know that Satan puts a lot of discouragement into our hearts and makes us feel inadequate and so we don't feel worthy enough to pray or go to the temple. It's very discouraging. When you don't go to the temple for a while you feel that way. Take the Nike theory, "Just do it". It makes you feel so much better and it reenters the spirit into your life and our own spirits.

I don't know if Erin reads my blog, but I just want her to know how proud I am of her and the decision she made to get married in the temple.

Dave's First Father's Day

Happy Father's Day Dave! Carson and I are so lucky to have you as a daddy and a wonderful husband. As you all know, Dave is really good with kids. Carson loves him so much because they have so much fun together. Carson is always so happy to see his dad when he comes home from work or whenever he leaves for just a minute to go run an errand. Dave reads to Carson each night before we put him to bed. Whenever I read to him, he won't cooperate with me.

For Dave's first Father's Day we gave him the first season of "The Office". I don't know any show that has made Dave laugh harder. We love watching it and enjoying that time together. We also got him Mario Kart and an extra wheel for the Wii. Dad loves playing video games and is very competitive. Another thing that we did for dad was get him a golfing certificate with golf balls and tees. Not only were the golf balls Titleist, but they were U of U golf balls!! Carson sure knows what to give his daddy!

We are very grateful to have Dad in our lives! He is such a wonderful person, who gives all of his time and effort to this family. He works hard every day to provide for us and support our little family. We love dad!

Getting Tagged

First of all, I would like to say thanks to Kirstin for tagging me. I never know what to fill out on these things!!

{3 joys}
1- Dave and Carson (My boys)
2- Chocolate
3- Sleeping in, which is now impossible

{3 fears}
1- Spiders
2- Walking in the dark. I can sleep in it, but every light goes on in the house one after the other until I safely reach my bedroom again
3- Driving in the snow/fog

{3 goals}
1- To run a marathon....hey I can dream
2- To lose more weight
3- To do more journaling and scrapbooking

{3 current obsessions}
1- Facebook. A lot of my friends are on there and it's so fun to keep in contact with everyone
2- Blogging
3- To have have more obsessions

{random fact about me...}
I am the princess and the pea. I cannot sleep unless I don't have any wrinkles in the sheets or in my clothes underneath me. I'm weird

{i tag}
Everyone who reads my blog that hasn't been tagged yet

Carson's First Bees Game

Tonight for FHE, we decided that it would be fun to take Carson to his very first Bees game. My Dad, my Uncle Norm, Gina and Beau came a long as well. Carson loved it. Even though he had no idea what was going on down on the field, he loved being outside around all the people. We love the nice weather too! It's been so nice to be able to get out of the house more and do fun things together as a family.

We had some people who sat behind us who had twins that were 2 years old. They were so adorable! Their names were Jackson and Carson. So, we were happy to make some friends. Carson loved watching them climb the stairs and swing on the railings. They weren't behind us very long, but it was fun to meet new people.

Carson was intrigued with the whole atmosphere and we had a very fun time hanging out at the ball game.

Please Do Not Feed The Ducks

Today we went to feed the ducks at Winchester Park along the Jordan River Parkway. It was a nice little activity that the family could do together to get out and enjoy the nice weather. Carson loves animals. He goes crazy over every dog he sees. He constantly crawls after Randy and Peggy's dog, Nikki. After I had taken the picture that is the 5th picture down from the top, we started to walk away to go see some other ducks and geese on the other side. Carson started to cry, so Dave took him back to the little baby geese and he was content again. We managed to get to the other side and Dave said, "do you see any signs that say not to feed the ducks". I couldn't see any, so we continued to feed all the animals. Carson had a blast feeding...himself. We would give him some bread to throw at the ducks and he would stick it in his mouth instead. I think I enjoyed feeding the ducks more than any of us did. When we were leaving, we spotted the sign, "Please do not feed the ducks". It's only the biggest thing ever! We laughed at ourselves and watched everyone else ignore the sign as well.

Bumps and Bruises

Carson is getting to that age where he is becoming more courageous everyday....and making mom and dad look like parents of the year. He has scrapes and bruises all over his head, and the moment you think they are all gone, within two days he's got a whole new set of them. Dave and I were walking through the grocery store yesterday and I told him,"people are probably wondering what the heck happened to his head." Poor Carson tries to do more than what he can actually achieve at his age. All these scrapes and bruises on his head were under the watchful care of mom and dad. All I know is that there could be worse things. My nephew Jackson just got stitches and I could only imagine how they feel. I feel that parents are really hard on themselves about their children and what happens to them. You always say to yourself, "

Carson is doing really well, despite all of this clumsy moments. He is teething and has been so fussy. I don't even remember him being this fussy ever! It has really tested my patience as a mom this past week.That's the wonderful thing about parenthood though. The Lord makes you forget all of the bad things that happen, because if he didn't, everyone would all be a single child. Anyway, his sleeping habits have almost gotten back to what he was before we started the whole "ferberizing thing". I am sure that it's because he's teething, but it's been a tiring week.

Dave and I are getting more and more excited each day to move into our new apartment...well, new to us. It doesn't have any air conditioning so if any of you know anyone who is trying to get rid of an air conditioner, let us know!

Dirt-y Boy

I love the things that Carson will get into. He gets into everything now. I am a nominee of the Mother of The Year award because he is even opening up cabinets where the cleaning products are. The other day though, Dave and I were in the living room watching TV and Carson crawls around the corner, into the kitchen and out of our sight. This lasted about 15 seconds. Before we knew it he was into my sister and brother-in-laws plant! I have officially decided that we won't be buying any plants for our apartment or when we get a house anytime soon. It's so funny how fast he is now at crawling. He loves going into the bathroom and when he sees that the door is open, he bolts for it. He's so funny.

Hip Hip Hooray!

I am so happy to announce that Carson is sleeping on his own! Last night he woke up twice, but he put himself back to sleep and that was all before midnight. Well, he'll fall asleep sitting up, so I have to go check on him and if he is sitting up, I have to go lie him down, which makes him upset. We put him to bed at 8:30 now and he sleeps until 8:30 in the morning. It's wonderful! I think I am more tired now that I am actually getting some sleep. Here is a little bit about the whole adventure. This whole thing was tiring, but worth it!

Friday, May 23 (night one): It wasn't so bad. We let him cry, which he did a lot of. He would cry and then 5 minutes we would go in there and talk to him and give him a hug and lye him back down. Then we would do it after 10 minutes, but he usually fell asleep before we went in for the second time. He cried often though. I bet we were up at least 6 or 7 times and went in after 5 minutes and then he'd be asleep before one of us would get in there a second time.

Saturday, May 24 (night two): Was little better sleeping wise, but he scared the crap out of us. He was crying so hard that he threw up on his back. I was so afraid that he would aspirate it. He actually started choking on it, so we had to get him out of bed and slap his back until he cried, but I don't know if he actually choked on the throw up or if he was crying so hard he was still choking, but it scared us. We had to change his pj's and then his bed sheets. He even fell asleep standing up while lying he head on edge of his crib.

Sunday, May 25 (night three): Was a nightmare!! He would NOT stop! He cried and cried from midnight until 6am. Finally we brought him into our room and put him in our bed and all three of us slept until 9:30 that morning. He threw up again this night as well. I think he knows exactly what gets mom and dad to come and pick him up, so he attempted his crying pyrotechnics again. I've been reading a lot about this from "What To Expect For The First Year" and it says that if you attempt these "crying it out" techniques on them that they are wise enough to know what gets mom and dad back into the room. The hard thing about this was, was he would get more angry if you came into the room and then went back out, which would make him cry harder and longer, but we were so scared because of the whole throwing up thing.

Monday, May 26 (night four): Was nice. He put up quite a fuss before we put him down, but he only woke up 4 times. I cheated. I hugged him and then lied him back down while still hugging him. I was practically throwing my leg over the crib to keep my cheek pressed against his. I was the only one who could calm him down last night.

Tuesday, May 27 (night five): Went really well! I am excited to tell you that. We put him into bed about 8:30. He had his blanket and a new stuffed animal that we bought him that we have taken every where with us during the day, so it was always with him. We fed him at 6, put him in the bath, let him play a little, drank a bottle, Dave read him some stories, and we put him down at 8:30. He cried for about 15 minutes and then went to sleep. He woke up twice before 9:30 but he cried himself back to sleep really fast. Then he woke up at midnight. I had to go get him and hug him and then lie him down and he cried, but he went back to sleep. Then he woke up 5 in the morning and cried. We had to go in twice, but then he slept until 9:30! He did really well!

Wednesday, May 28 (night six):Night 6 went great! He only woke up twice. He cried for 10 minutes the first time and put himself back to sleep. The second time, he wouldn't settle down, so I went in there and hugged him and tucked him back in and he cried for about 2 minutes after I left the room and he went right to sleep. We have been putting him to bed at 8:30 and he sleeps until 9am. It's great. I just hope within the next few nights he'll just put himself back to sleep both times. The three nights we have also followed a very strict schedule, so that's my advice to anyone.

9am- Wake up and play
10am- Eat breakfast
12- Nap
2- Lunch
6- Dinner, then bath, then play, then read books
8:30- Bed

Thrusday, May 29 (night 7): Was already discussed in the first paragraph of the blog.